Happy to work–but not to toil

Sir, Thank you for Sebastian Mallaby’s insightful essay, “Why I work on my summer holiday” (August 15). The key in this discussion is to distinguish between work and toil. “Work” in this sense is something satisfying to do in and for itself, in addition to the fact that it is making money or directly producing needed goods; “toil” is something you do not want to do, but must do under the lash of necessity. Here I follow the American philosopher, Mortimer Adler. Adler himself was still writing books in his 90s. This was clearly work for him, but not toil. Would he have been happier with “leisure”, for example, plodding around after a guide on some packaged tour? Presumably not.

Mr Mallaby points out that there is now much less work as a proportion of life than historically; more importantly, there is proportionally much less toil. This is true both in paid employment and in the home, both of which have been heavily capitalised over the past century. The reduction in toil as a proportion of life is one of the great achievements of the enterprising market economy.